Nicolas Mignard

Nicolas Mignard , also known as Mignard d'Avignon, (7 February 1606 (baptised) – 20 March 1668) was a French painter known for his religious and mythological scenes and portraits. He spent most of his active life in Avignon creating religious and mythological paintings for religious institutions and stately homes but ended his career as court painter in Paris.

Biography Nicolas Mignard was born in Troyes in 1606 as the son of Pierre and Marie Gallois. He came from a family of artisans. He was the older brother of Pierre Mignard, who became one of the leading French painters of the 17th century and a rival of Charles Le Brun.

Nicolas Mignard studied painting with a local master of Troyes whose identity is unknown. He travelled subsequently to Fontainebleau where he copied the works of the Mannerist painters.

His earliest work showed the influence of the Mannerists working in Fontainebleau and of Carracci. Later his style followed the Italianate classicizing aesthetic that dominated seventeenth-century France, and was very much influenced by the French classical Baroque painter Charles Le Brun.